Early morning fog in the mountain region north of San Francisco seemed as though it would never fully dissipate. It encircled every old pine ridge, spreading a layer of cool moisture onto the rusty stone walls of the Gothic castle.
Maya stood by the window, her hand clutching tightly onto the strap of her old cloth handbag. The suppressed quietness inside the magnificent guest room alongside the sensation of being watched at every move was eroding her very last bit of reason. The whispers of the two female servants regarding the mysterious disappearance of little Mark's mother kept swirling deep into her mind, turning every smile, every gaze, or gentle touch from Travis into a threat-filled snare.
She needed to get in touch with the outside. She needed a anchor, needed someone to awaken her from this sweet yet utterly suffocating nightmare.
Taking advantage of the morning period when Travis was busy in a closed-door meeting with his henchmen in his third-floor office, and Mark was being looked after by servants in the toy room, Maya quietly stepped out into the garden behind the castle.
The garden was vast to the point of resembling a miniature forest, planted entirely with ancient thorny rose bushes and shrubs taller than a human head. The outdoor air was bone-chilling yet fresh. She pretended to stroll leisurely, her eyes glued tightly to the phone screen hidden neatly inside her palm.
No service.
No service.
The sunken grey dot kept teasing her. Maya walked faster, venturing deeper toward the farthest corner of the grounds. The sturdy stone wall surrounding the castle appeared flickeringly behind the rain-soaked pine leaves.
Situated hidden away at the end of the long hallway leading out to the outer edge of the plot was a small ancient stone house. This place seemed to have once been a shed storing gardening tools or a cottage reserved for old servant overseers, its tile roof already covered in green moss, surrounded by overgrown wild grass.
As Maya approached the stone house, her footsteps abruptly paused in their tracks.
Beep... beep...
The phone in her hand lightly vibrated a short beat.
Maya snatched the phone up to her line of sight. At the top corner of the screen, the flickering grey dot of lost signal vanished, replaced instead by a fragile signal bar that unexpectedly leaped up to two bars!
Maya's heart surged a rapid beat. Perhaps because this small house was situated right against the outermost fence wall of the castle, far away from the central jammer system placed in the main building, a tiny bit of unstable telecommunication signal from the network outside the mountain area had accidentally leaked in here.
CHIME! CHIME! CHIME! CHIME!
The exact moment there was a connection, the phone seemed to wake up after a long slumber. A series of notification sounds rang out continually, loud and rushing in the quiet space of the stone house.
Dozens of text messages, a dozen missed calls from Chloe poured down onto the screen like a downpour:
"Maya! Where on earth are you?!"
"Why can't your phone be reached?! I've called hundreds of times!"
"Maya, answer me! I came to your rented apartment to look for you but the door was locked from the outside; neighbors said they haven't seen you return for days!"
"I went to St. Jude School and the principal said you requested a long-term leave for family reasons?! Are you hiding something from me?! Answer me right now!"
Looking at her best friend's rushing text lines, Maya could no longer hold back her tears; they competed to roll down her pale cheeks. The loneliness and fear accumulated throughout the past days felt like a broken dam.
Without hesitating for a single second longer, Maya tapped immediately on the redial button to Chloe.
The prolonged ringtone lasted less than half a beat before the other end of the line was immediately picked up. Chloe's familiar, anxious voice, screeching to the point of turning hoarse, rang out harshly over the phone speaker:
"Maya?! My god, is that Maya?! What corner of the earth are you in?! Do you know I've been going crazy looking for you these past days?!"
"Chloe... it's me..." Maya's voice choked up; she hurriedly raised her hand to cover her mouth to suppress her sobbing.
On the other end of the line, hearing the sniffling and her friend's trembling voice, Chloe instantly realized something abnormal. The initial harshness vanished, giving way to ultimate panic:
"Maya? What's wrong with you? Why are you crying?! Did something happen to you?! Where are you, tell me right now!"
Maya covertly looked around through the stone house window frame. The space outside was still deserted with only the sound of wind sweeping through leaf gaps, but she knew she did not have much time. She lowered her voice to the quietest level, uttering hastily:
"Chloe, listen to me... I don't have much time. I... I am being kept at a villa, or rather an isolated castle in the northern mountains..."
"What?!" Chloe screamed over the phone, her voice high-pitched from shock. "Being kept?! Who is keeping you?! Is it that kidnapper from that night?!"
"No... it's not the hitman," Maya gasped for breath, her two hands trembling as they tightly clutched the phone. "It's Travis. The man named Travis — little Mark's father..."
"Travis?!" Chloe was stunned, then her voice became extremely chaotic: "That ultra-rich tycoon you talked about last time?! Why is he keeping you?! Isn't he the person protecting you?!"
"At first I thought so too..." Maya choked up, each word uttered like a painful self-confession. "That night, after escaping from the hitman, he brought me and Mark to this castle. He told me to stay for safety... But Chloe, it's very strange here! My phone lost signal completely; I can't call or text anyone. All the servants here are as cold as ice; no one agrees to talk to me. Around the castle there are guards on duty at all times; I... I'm not even permitted to step out of the gate!"
"My goodness..." Chloe took a deep breath, her voice beginning to crack with panic. "Then what about the school?! The principal said you requested leave yourself?!"
"I didn't request leave at all!" Maya bit her lip tightly, tears streaming down her face. "It's Travis! He had someone intervene at the school, using sponsorship money to forge my leave request. I don't know what he did with my rented apartment or my belongings... I am like a prisoner kept under soft house arrest here!"
"Crazy! Truly a bunch of crazy rich people!" Chloe yelled over the phone, anger mixed with fear erupting. "Maya, listen to me, are you okay?! Did he do anything to hurt you?! Did he beat or threaten you?!"
"No... he didn't hit me," Maya hesitated, her voice dropping full of confusion. "On the contrary... he treats me very well. Very... gently. He takes care of me, adjusts how I use my knife and fork, takes me to play soccer with Mark... The other night, he even almost... almost kissed me..."
"What?!" Chloe on the other end of the line nearly fell backward, her voice choking from sheer shock: "Hey hey Maya, wake yourself up for my sake! Missed kiss and gentle treatment, what on earth?! That is emotional manipulation, do you understand?! He is a man of power; he is turning you into a bird in a golden cage! Did you forget those hitmen with dark gun barrels that night?!"
"I didn't forget..." Maya whispered, her chest heaving painfully. "And Chloe, I also heard... I heard the servants in the house whispering to each other..."
"What did they say?!"
"They said little Mark's mother... she didn't pass away from illness or divorce like rumors say..." Maya lowered her voice to the absolute lowest possible, the sensation of an icy spine returning. "...She vanished. Mysteriously vanished right inside this very castle three years ago!"
A deadly silence enveloped the call. Chloe on the other end of the line seemed to be made limp in her limbs by this information as well. Her rapid breathing echoed over the phone speaker.
"Damn it..." Chloe cursed under her breath, her voice trembling uncontrollably. "Maya, listen to my instructions. That place is extremely dangerous! A man who can make a woman vanish right inside his own house without anyone able to do anything is a demon, not a human! You absolutely must not trust any of his sweet words anymore, do you hear me clear?!"
"I know..." Maya nodded through tears. "What should I do, Chloe? I am so scared..."
"Stay calm! You must stay completely calm!" Chloe tried to keep her voice from breaking. "What location are you in right now? Do you know the exact address of that castle?!"
"I don't know..." Maya looked through the stone house frame. "That night it rained heavily in torrents; he brought me in his private car. I only know it's located in the northern mountains, a little over an hour's drive from the center..."
"Alright, I understand. Listen to my instructions, Maya:" Chloe spoke in an urgent yet extremely firm voice. "From now on, you must pretend as if nothing happened. You just be obedient, listen to him, don't show any suspicion or resistance whatsoever! Don't let him discover that you know about Mark's mother or that you found a phone signal, do you understand?!"
"I understand..."
"I will find a way to investigate the location of that castle! I will ask a few acquaintances in the police or find out who Travis's family is. When I have a plan, I will find a way to rescue you! But during that time, you absolutely must not do anything foolish, do you hear me?!"
"I promise... Thank you, Chloe..."
Thud... thud... thud...
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps lightly tapping on the damp, dry leaves outside in the garden rang out, cutting off Maya's words.
The sound of footsteps was slow yet steady, advancing toward the old stone house!
The back of Maya's neck went ice-cold. Every hair on her body stood bolt upright. Her heart leaped a beat, wanting to explode out of her chest. Someone was advancing this way!
"Chloe! Someone is coming! I have to hang up!" Maya whispered rapidly into the phone.
"Maya! Be careful—"
SNAP!
Maya pressed the disconnect call button immediately. Her trembling hand quickly stuffed the phone deep inside her cardigan coat pocket, then used both hands to clutch her chest tightly to suppress her frantic gasping.
She hurriedly grabbed a pair of rusty plant shears lying on a nearby wooden shelf, pretending as if she had merely accidentally stepped in here to search for a few gardening tools.
The decayed wooden door of the stone house slowly pushed open.
Creak... creak...
Pale morning light shone into the gloomy room, dragging behind the tall, muscular silhouette of the man standing at the threshold.
It was Travis.
He still wore the light grey shirt, but this time his hands were not in his pants pockets. The tycoon's dark ash-grey eyes were deep like the deep night, quietly staring intensely at the small girl standing cowering in the middle of the desolate stone house.
Travis's chiseled face bore no angry expression whatsoever, yet his silence carried a suffocating pressure.
"What are you doing here?" Travis spoke up, his low voice sounding flat yet ice-cold like frost.
Maya swallowed a dry mouthful of saliva, forcing a trembling smile, holding up the plant shears in her hand: "I... I was taking a walk in the garden. Seeing this house, I stepped in to take a look... I saw a few rose patches out there needing some dead leaves trimmed so..."
Travis said nothing. He walked step by step closer to her leisurely.
His expensive leather shoes tapped lightly on the moldy, damp concrete floor. He stopped right before Maya, the distance so close she could feel the familiar warmth and masculine sandalwood scent emanating from his body.
Travis raised his hand. Maya involuntarily closed her eyes tightly from fear, thinking her phone call secret had been exposed.
However, his large hand merely reached out gently, flicking away a piece of dry moss accidentally caught on her soft hair.
"This place is old and damp," Travis lowered his voice, his fingers lightly brushing over her earlobe, bringing a touch that was gentle yet full of possessiveness. "Next time don't wander off far alone like this again. I will worry."
Maya looked up at him, her thin lips trembling lightly: "I... I understand, Mr. Travis."
Travis curled his lips into a textbook smile, but his eyes glided over her cardigan coat pocket that was bulging out at one corner. He did not expose her, merely leisurely taking Maya's ice-cold hand, leading her out of the dark stone house:
"Let's go inside. Breakfast is already set out. Mark is waiting for you."
Maya walked quietly beside the man, her hand held tightly by him. She knew that this fake peaceful period was counting down day by day, and this sweet house arrest game was about to enter a dramatic climax.
